"The Gothic Literature Page is devoted to study of Gothic Literaturewhich flourished in England from 1764 to 1820. This site is intended toprovide students and scholars of the Gothic novel access to the growingnumber of resources available on the web. An introduction to the Gothicnovel, collected summaries, papers, critical and bibliographical information and related sites are assembled together to expedite research."

"Too often the term "Gothic" appears as a catch-all term pitted against or aligned with some aspect of the Romantic, without attention to specific works or to the evolving nature of the genre. Thus, a "who read whatlist" can provide some historical grounding for these investigations. I've begun with the gothic readings of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats and will add others (Mary Shelley and De Quincey are next up) as the list develops."

"This paper provides not so much an answer as a question, and a naive one at that, which grew out of my recent work on fakes and forgeries. Such frauds not long to seek: the eighteenth century is crawling with them... It seems important to figure out what all these cases have in common -- what, in short, constitutes a fake. So let's see: each faker is a liar, who disseminates extended falsehoods, who represents his work as something it is not, and who tries to deceive his audience about the nature of his text. So far, so good. But here a problem arises: notice that I've described not only Psalmanazar and Macpherson, but also Defoe and Richardson. According to these criteria, our beloved novelists are guilty of the same crimes as the mendacious finks: their works are filled with lies, they represent them as something they're not, and they try to deceive their audience about the nature of their texts. The conclusion is inescapable: the eighteenth-century novelists are just as bad as the forgers."

"The Literary Gothic is a Web site for all things concerned with literary Gothicism, whichincludes ghost stories, "classic" Gothic fiction (1764-1820), and related pre- and post-Gothic and supernaturalist literature prior to the mid-twentieth century. " The "General Resources" category will be the most useful, containing many links to critical sites and essays. Author and title sections list primarily online texts, with some criticism mixed in.

This lengthy historical analysis includes sections titled "Limited Influence of the Middle Ages upon Modern Literature", "Dryden’s, Pope’s and Addison’s estimates of Medieval Poetic masterpieces", "Percy’s Five Runic Pieces", "Chatterton and his indebtedness to Spenser ", and "Tyrwhitt, the Restorer of Chaucer."

Author: W. P. Ker

From:The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Volume X: English, The Age of Johnson

"This study sets out to remedy part of this neglect by examining the development of literary collections during the period when they became a printed genre directed to a diverse readership, from the Restoration to the beginning of the nineteenth century. By analyzing the way these collections shape and are shaped by the cultural contexts in which they were produced and by explicating the kind of reading they invite,this book argues that literary anthologies mediate between individual readers and literary culture. This mediation redefines readers' subjectivity by representing literature as art and reading as a critical activity. Anthologies sell texts of choice and the choice of texts. "

An online community of Jane Austen fans help maintain this website devoted to the author. Contains public domain works on and by Austen as well as a list of links to external resources for more information. Also has an online forum.

This lengthy analysis of Scottish popular poetry of the17th and 18th centuries includes sections on "The long Blight on Scottish Secular Verse", "Exceptional popularity of Lyndsay", "Peculiarity of the relation between English and Scottish Song in the Seventeenth Century", "Allan Ramsay", "Robert Crawford", "Jacobite Songs in Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland", and "Robert Fergusson: his personality and poetic qualities."

Contains: Historical Context, Content Analysis, Bibliography

Author: T. F. Henderson

From:The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Volume IX: English, From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift

This lengthy analysis of the author's life and work includes sections on "The Scottish literary revival of the eighteenth century", "His German studies; Ballad poetry", "The Lady of the Lake", "Scott and Byron", "His treatment of love" and "The influence of his work."

Contains: Historical Context, Content Analysis, Bibliography

Author: T. F. Henderson

From:The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Volume XII: English, The Romantic Revival, The Nineteenth Century, I